Joseph Diaz takes the 801 rapid bus every day from his home in Central Austin to the Georgian Acres neighborhood in North Austin to get to his job. The bus lets off at the North Lamar transit station on U.S. 183. Diaz, 22, walks across the highway to check in for work at Jail to Jobs on East Powell…

After Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of the East Coast in 2012, 911 systems became so overloaded that people couldn’t get through by phone to report an emergency. At a loss for how to reach out for help, people turned to Twitter to post distress calls, which the New York Fire Department began…

In March 2021, Good Systems hosted a first-of-its-kind event with the World Economic Forum, inviting researchers and industry leaders to talk about government procurement of artificial intelligence, or — simply — how state, local, and federal government agencies buy AI technologies like computer…

Nitrogen and oxygen make up 99% of the air we breathe, but that’s not all that’s swirling around us as we go about our day. Other compounds like carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, together with fine particles like dust and smoke, can contribute to air pollution that has adverse effects on our…

I originally wrote this blog aiming to publish it in mid-March of 2020. I was traveling back to Austin at the time and suggested that we hold off until we saw how COVID unfolded. It is a year later, and I’m still not sure if now is the right time to talk about climate change in Texas. We’ve lost 2…

Karen Johnson, an associate professor in the School of Nursing and Whole Communities–Whole Health researcher, remembers administering her first COVID-19 vaccine — and the rush of adrenaline that came over her.

Borders today are understood as political demarcations that separate states and nation-states. But, sometimes, we share more in common with the people beyond these arbitrary lines than we think. Especially in the early 20th century and before, the natural environment typically helped shape people’s…

In Texas, change is inevitable.

In the past, changes in sea level, droughts, erosion or sedimentation, or flooding have led to the abandonment of settlements. Those ruined towns and cities bear witness to environmental changes that left them unsustainable.

You might not know it, but surveillance is happening all around us all the time. Businesses, governments, and nonstate actors are gathering information — whether it’s to sell us something on social media or screen us when we apply for a home loan. Researchers from both The University of Texas at…